Oscar Wilde

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all."

Birthplace

Dublin, Ireland

Education

At school in Ireland (the same one Beckett later attended) he was, according to contemporary accounts, "unpopular with his schoolmates, a large, ungainly boy with inert habits... untidy, inclined to flop about, slovenly in both appearance and dress"; his nickname was "Grey Crow". At Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford he shone at classics.

Other jobs

Editor

Did you know?

His favoured alias was Sebastian Melmoth, after the charismatic demon in his ancestor Charles Maturin's gothic novel.

Critical verdict

Wilde is now known for more than his wit (As Dorothy Parker wrote, "If, with the literate, I am/ Impelled to make an epigram,/ I never seek to take the credit;/ We all assume that Oscar said it") and the iconic libel trial that resulted from the Marquis of Queensbury's calling card addressed to "Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite". His work contains real depth and political engagement (see The Soul of Man Under Socialism), while the world-famous Importance of Being Earnest is a much queerer beast than it first appears. His essays on aesthetics are still stimulating today.

Recommended works

The Picture of Dorian Gray; The Importance of Being Earnest; The Artist as Critic

Influences

Walter Pater, John Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites

Now read on

Adaptations

The 1952 Importance of Being Earnest has a fantastic Mrs Bracknell in Edith Evans; Stephen Fry was as uncannily Wildean in the faithful biopic Wilde as he is in real life, while Rupert Everett was another inspired choice for the stylish if fluffy 1999 An Ideal Husband.

Recommended biography

The Complete Letters, edited by Rupert Hart-Davis and Merlin Holland, is authoritative and exhaustive; Ellman's biography is sensitive and readable.

Criticism

Davis Coakley's Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Irish explores a sometimes overlooked facet of Wilde.

Mr. Oscar Wilde died at Paris last Friday, in his forty-fifth year. Wilde's life is one of the saddest in English literature. His abilities were sufficient to win him an honoured place as a man of letters, but they struggled in vain against his lack of character.